Graffiti

September 8: At least four banners featuring antisemitic signs were displayed by violent protesters against the Macedonia name deal in the northern Greek port city of Thessaloniki (h/t Leon Saltiel). They read “Talmud, Qabballah, the Enemy of the Humanity”, “Against New World Order (with a red line erasing the Star of David), “Here Greece, Here Orthodoxy. Death to Zionism” and “Rothschild, your end is coming”.

“Rothschild, your end ist coming”: One of the antisemitic banners displayed in Thessaloniki. More signs at antisemitism.org.il

Late August: Antisemitic graffiti was sprayed on the wall of a house located in a central street of Sparta. The inscription reads “Death to the Jews” (Θάνατος στους Εβραίους), skalalakonias blog has reported.

Late August: The Ioannina section of leftist “Popular Unity” party opposed in a press release the twinning agreement between the city of Ioannina (northern Greece) and the city of Kiryat Ono calling Israel a “terrorist state”.

August 31: Hate graffiti, propaganda material and several christian symbols were found outside the construction site of a state-funded mosque in Athens, lifo.gr has reported. Some of the flyers posted outside the construction site are clearly antisemitic: “Out with the Freemasons and the Jews” and “All bank are controlled by Zionists,” they read.

August 30: An antisemitic sticker referring to the “Jews and money” stereotype with the slur “Jew dog” was found near the Byzantine Museum of Thessaloniki. The sticker was posted by followers of “Father Cleomenis,” a man who dresses as a monk and posts videos of himself on social media vandalizing monuments, most recently the Holocaust memorial in the Central Greece city of Larissa (h/t Racist Crime Watch).

The Holocaust memorial in Athens was defaced with graffiti probably on Friday. The graffiti reads: “Hello, my name is thanatos [death].” Photos of the vandalism were posted on the Facebook Group The Jewish Heritage in Greece (see photo below).

Erected in 2010, the monument commemorates the 59,000 Greek Jews who were murdered in the Holocaust. It represents a broken Magen David, with each of the broken pieces representing the lost Greek Jewish communities. The names of the communities are engraved in the marble piece pointing in the direction where they once existed (via).

Members of the “Watch:Antisemitism in Europe” project have found walls covered with hateful graffiti in central streets of Iraklion (Agiou Mina Str. & Dikeosinis Str.), the capital of the island of Crete.

The slogans may have been daubed by different individuals and they target the Americans (red writing, see photo above), the Pope, the Jehovah’s Witnesses & the LGBT people (the words “syko” meaning “fig” & “ftera” meaning “wings” are associated to “diavoloi” meaning “devils”). There are also references to the Athens Polytechnic uprising in 1973 and the Greek Communist Party (KKE). The Star of David has been painted along with an anarchist, a peace and a euro currency symbol. A Venus symbol has been painted in the Star of David. A Mercury symbol figures nearby.

It seems that nobody in Iraklion is disgusted until now by these messages of hate.

On the road leading into Hora, the capital of Andros, Andrea Gilbert from Greek Helsinki Monitor found in July 2016 a wall covered with graffiti. This was leftist graffiti, the red by supporters of the Laiki Enotita (Popular Unity), the breakaway farther left party that spun off SYRIZA after the referendum, one year ago. Briefly, the slogans support the past glory of the OXI (or NO) vote, purporting to shed the yoke of EU occupation. The black writing is the work of Antifa (far left ‘antifascist’ group), purporting to denounce the existence of ‘fascists’ everywhere, “even on Andros”. The Star of David is used in association with the evils of NATO, capitalism, the EU, etc… all linked to force of Zionism.

Andros, July the 14th, 2016. Photo courtesy of Andrea Gilbert.

The Star of David has been painted with the slogans: “Do you want to vote for them? [the Greek pro-Memorandum parties are meant] No!!! Wake up!!!” Andros, July the 14th, 2016. Photo courtesy of Andrea Gilbert.

Andrea Gilbert commented on Facebook: “The slogans are old, but is this graffiti? The paint should have faded in the elements over the course of a year. No matter, though. The real offense here is not so much that this graffiti was done, so much as the fact that the administration of this manicured village and pristine island has allowed them to remain, for anyone entering the town to see. For even a day, much less for over a year!”

The black writing is the work of Antifa (far left ‘antifascist’ group), purporting to denounce the existence of ‘fascists’ everywhere, “even on Andros”. Photo courtesy of Andrea Gilbert.

On September 12, 2016, the exterior of the Synagogue of Ioannina was found by local Jewish Community members desecrated with swastikas graffiti. The authorities were notified. The Central Board of Jewish Communities in Greece issued the following announcement:

Vandal racists defaced with swastikas the exterior of the surrounding wall of the historic Synagogue of Ioannina, situated in the old walled city, the Kastro (Castle). Vandals drew swastikas also in some houses of the surrounding area.

The Central Board of Jewish Communities in Greece expressed the Greek Jewry’s repudiation for this hideous act and urged the competent authorities to work for the arrest of the perpetrators as well as for the adequate protection of the Synagogue so as to contain such incidents that stain the image of the city of Ioannina.

The Israeli Ynet news site recently published an interview with Leon David who made Aliyah from Greece to Israel and is now serving in the IDF. Asked whether he experienced antisemitism in Greece he answers: “Of course. Many times I had to clean up neo-Nazi graffiti and deal with racist abuse.”

But the most memorable incident was when a teacher, who did not know he was Jewish, told the class that what Israel is doing to the Palestinians is just like what Hitler did to the Jews. He later approached the teacher and she apologized, but the incident encouraged him to come to Israel.

Supporters of PAOK F.C. have sprayed onto a wall in Thessaloniki, Greece’s second-largest city, antisemitic graffiti calling the supporters of Aris F.C., also based in Thessaloniki, “Sons of a bitch” and “Jews” (in Greek: Εβραίοι).

The graffiti has been recently discovered by lawyer & author Michalis Tremopoulos at the east side of the city.

“It is interesting that once a friend asked me if, as a greek Jew myself, knew if indeed Jews had founded the team of Aris Saloniki. I answered that to the best of my knowledge that this was not true and I inquired on why he wanted to know. He replied that often other fans accused him that his team was founded by Jews and he wanted to verify it! Apparently the simple fact that possibly a jew could be involved in the founding of a team was a reason enough to be contaminated, a kind of original sin. It wasn’t important that Aris doesn’t have anything to do with jews, (neither players, nor managers, nor anything else in his history), it was enough that a jew might have «touched» him to contaminate him forever without any chance of redemption. By the way probably this is the reason of why jews get the dubious honour of getting mentioned twice on the same wall, they get identified with the arch-enemy of PAOK, the team of Aris. So they become target for two reasons: one because as jews they’re a just object of hate and also because they’re identified with the traditional opponents.” (How to insult a greek! 19/3/2007)